


I Will Follow Your Colours

by WobblyJellyfish



Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Cuddling, Four Dorks In Love, Kissing, Lots of Cuddling, Mild Angst, Mild injury and blood, Multi, Mutual Pining, Nobody Dies Nothing Bad Happens, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-06
Updated: 2020-08-06
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:07:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25750318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WobblyJellyfish/pseuds/WobblyJellyfish
Summary: The people of Remnant have their soulmate marks appear on the left wrist at age thirteen, a symbol the colour of the soulmate’s aura. Initially nothing more than a blurred blob or stripe, but usually are fully clear at around age seventeen. This is universal, even if the soulmates find each other before the marks fully develop.Or if they find each other without even realising.A yellow shield. A pink lightning bolt. A red spear. A pink lotus.
Relationships: Jaune Arc/Lie Ren/Pyrrha Nikos/Nora Valkyrie
Comments: 13
Kudos: 42





	I Will Follow Your Colours

**Author's Note:**

> SO THIS FIC CONSUMED ME AND I HAVE BEEN NOTHING BUT A VESSEL FOR IT FOR MONTHS.
> 
> I adore Soulmate AUs and I adore JNPR Berries, so it had to be done. These four dorks are so cute and in love and _I have a lot of feelings about it okay._
> 
> Also enjoy some very minor background Bee's Schnees and Nuts + Dolts.

It had come as a total surprise for both of them.

Not that it had even been a thought; they had more important things to be worried about, namely the Lancers that lived in the islands nearby. They’d decided to start heading back up north to Mistral to restock on supplies, travelling alongside the shore of Lake Matsu so they’d always have water. The small groups of trees dotted along the shoreline certainly provided decent shelter overnight to sleep in, but not much in the way of comfort, as Ren had realised when he had woken up with stiffness in his neck from sleeping against one of the trees.

As usual, Nora was already up and awake, judging from the light scribbling he could hear. In the near five years they’d been wandering together, ever since … then, she’d always been the morning person, sometimes even waking with the sunrise, but always let him sleep unless there was trouble. Ren sat up straight and stretched, rolling his head to ease some of the tension in his neck. “Good morning!” he heard, before watching Nora hop down from the tree branch she’d been sitting on and planted herself next to him, beaming.

Ren smiled softly. “Good morning.” He looked down at the notebook in her hands. “Have you been working on it again?”

“Yep!” Nora flicked through her designs to her most recent one. Another warhammer, bigger than the last one (again), but this time with some smaller sketches of what looked to be the inside next to it. “I think I’m gonna put a grenade launcher in it. That way I can beat up Grimm from long distance, too!”

“It suits you,” Ren said, and smiled again when Nora giggled.

“Thanks! Have you thought any more about what you want yours to be?”

“A little.” Ren hummed. “Something small and lightweight, easy to wield.”

“Well we’ve got another day or two until we get to Mistral, that’s plenty of time to talk about it on the way! And which academy we wanna go to!” She jumped up, and bounced on her heels as Ren steadily pushed himself up and stretched again.

“We don’t even have materials or a place to build any weapons yet. And we still have at least four years until then.” Ever impatient, Nora pouted, but cheered up as Ren ruffled hair and they started towards the fruit trees just ahead of them.

It was when they were sat in the clearing, having their breakfast of apples and berries, that Ren noticed her stranger-than-usual behaviour. Nora had paused mid-bite, frowning at her wrist, before switching the apple to her other hand and tried wiping her arm against the pink fabric of her dress. He reasoned it was most likely dirt, or some smudging from her sketching earlier. But she went back to her food and excitedly babbling about the newest addition to her weapon design, so Ren said nothing.

As they walked along the sandier dirt by the edge of the lake, he noticed Nora continuously looking back down at her wrist, sometimes just scowling, other times scrubbing at it with the heel of her other hand. “You’re going to make it sore if you keep scratching at it,” Ren said gently.

Nora had quickly dropped her hands. “ _Fine_ ,” she’d said, rolling her eyes. Instead she began pointing out all the islands, floating in the distance, wondering if they had names. Ren had simply booped her nose when asked if perhaps sloths lived up there, and nodded along as she gave the islands peculiar names after things she thought they looked like.

When they stopped to rest for a short while, after some hours of trekking, seemed to be when Nora had snapped. She’d groaned, and dramatically marched over to the water before kneeling down and sticking her hand in, resuming scrubbing at whatever stain on her wrist seemed to be irking her so much. Ren had dropped their bag and rushed to her side, gently taking her hand in his to stop her from carrying on. “You’ve been rubbing and scratching your wrist all day,” he murmured. “What’s wrong?”

Nora took her hand back and laid it in her lap, before turning her left wrist over. “It looks like I got paint or something on it during the night,” she said. She scowled down at the colourful swatches on her skin; one yellow, one red, one pink. “Which is dumb and doesn’t make any sense, unless it’s from fruit. But whatever it is, _it won’t come off_.”

Ren said nothing as he examined her wrist. It definitely wasn’t paint or juice, whatever it was. Even though they weren’t much more than blotches, they were too clear to be dirt or from fruit, and nowhere near messy enough.

Then it clicked.

“Nora,” Ren said quietly, taking both hands this time in his. “I think it’s your birthday.” His own birthday wasn’t for another three months, at the beginning of summer, and while they’d always known they were the same age, not even Nora knew exactly when her birthday was. And now, for her thirteenth, they had confirmation. Nora stared at him, wide-eyed, and then at her wrist.

“Are they,” she breathed. “Are they my soulmate marks?” She stared a little longer, before it seemed to register properly. “ _I have three?!”_ Nora almost screamed.

“Someone’s lucky,” Ren chuckled.

“Ha, ha,” Nora retorted, sticking her tongue out at him. “I wonder what they’re like, what their symbols will be. Ooh, I wonder what mine is on theirs! Another thing to add to my waiting list, I guess.” She shifted to move to Ren’s side, and rested her head on his shoulder. “And I have a _birthday_. I can’t believe it,” Nora said softly as she looked up at Ren.

“Looks like you’re older than me,” he said, a laugh tugging at the corner of his lips but not escaping.

“Does this mean I get to be in charge now?” She smirked.

“Absolutely not.” Ren turned to watch the waves of the lake glitter in the afternoon sun. Quieter, he added, “happy birthday, Nora.” Nora giggled, nudging him playfully, before also gazing at the lake and looping an arm around Ren.

They managed to find shelter when they reached Mistral, being taken in by a kind elderly couple who looked after other children in similar situations as them. Being able to sleep indoors and in beds was definitely much nicer, and even earning a little pocket money for doing small odd jobs around the house was a bonus – Nora insisted on saving a bunch of it to buy materials once they both knew what their final weapons would be. With being in a safe environment and being occupied, time flew by faster than it ever had for either of them, and both the beginning of summer and Ren’s birthday had snuck up on them.

Upon realising the date, Nora had made a loud declaration of, “happy birthday!” and promptly tackled Ren back against his bed in a hug. Ren laughed softly, returning the hug and shuffling over to make room for Nora to sit next to him on his left. She drew her knees up, before gently shaking his arm. “Come on, it’s your thirteenth, don’t you want to see yours?” Nora asked excitedly, tugging his sleeve lightly.

“I suppose so,” Ren said, with a small smirk. He took his arm away from her grasp and rolled down his left sleeve … and frowned. It wasn’t that he also had three marks, it was that they, two of them in particular, looked startlingly _familiar_. Yellow, red, and pink. “Nora,” he murmured. “What did yours look like again?”

Nora tilted her head a little, confused, but shuffled closer into his side as she held out her left wrist alongside his. They both had pink marks, hers was rounder and darker, closer to magenta, while his was lighter, like bubblegum, and somewhat of a diagonal line. But the other two were _identical_ , even in their new, blurred forms – another diagonal line, this one scarlet, and what looked like a round kite shape, and bright like buttercups.

They both sat in silence, in shock of what they were looking at. The chances of this happening must have been _astronomical_ , yet here they were. Ren couldn’t think of what to say, but, as usual, Nora had plenty. “This is great!” she exclaimed, grinning from ear to ear. “Ren, we have the same soulmates! We get to be together with the same people! Isn’t that wonderful?”

Ren blinked at her, before looking down at their wrists with a soft smile. “Yes, it is,” he said, and held Nora’s left hand with his own.

Nora squeezed his hand. “I just hope we don’t have to wait too long to find them.”

***

Pyrrha flopped onto the edge of her bed, using her semblance to lock her door. She looked over to where her weapons stood against the door of her wardrobe, crisscrossed to resemble her emblem, and sighed. Miló had been re-forged earlier that month to add its xiphos form, and everyone, from other students to teachers to even the _media_ , couldn’t stop talking about how magnificently she’d fought with it. How none of her opponents stood a chance when she’d sailed through to victory in the Mistral Regionals for the second year in a row. How she was clearly a prodigy, going to be the finest Huntress of her generation.

She didn’t know how to feel about it.

The attention and praise had indeed been nice at first. Ever since she’d first learned about them, Pyrrha had wanted to be a Huntress, and for the most part was simply glad her abilities were good enough that her teachers and peers already saw her on track to being such. But after her first win of the Regionals, the praise and admiration had started to shift, being given to her from a distance. Interactions with anyone outside of her parents felt cold, like they were talking to someone else. It felt hollow.

She was flooded with attention all the time, yet was totally alone.

Looking down at her armguard, Pyrrha rubbed her wrist lightly with her thumb. It was fortunate, in a way, that her guard was so long to protect her arm when wielding Akoúo̱; it wouldn’t look so strange having her wrist covered all the time. People wouldn’t ask questions. Why would Pyrrha Nikos want to hide her soulmate mark?

She sighed again, and tugged gently at the string until her armguard fell away onto the floor. Running her thumb over her skin again, Pyrrha carefully traced over the shapes with her eyes. At fifteen, they were definitely much clearer than they had been when she’d first gotten them, developing from two blobs and a squiggle to fairly identifiable symbols. They still weren’t fully formed – they wouldn’t be for at least another two years – but were at least distinct enough that she could give a good guess as to what they were. Well, two of them.

The first had been the easiest, mostly due to its simplicity. A jagged, light pink line that resembled a lightning bolt, and even though it was still a little fuzzy, Pyrrha reckoned it wasn’t going to change too drastically. The next, the round, vivid yellow, looked as if it were a shield of some description, with its long curves on the sides and smaller ones along the top, or perhaps some strange kite. The third, a darker shade of pink than the bolt, still wasn’t something Pyrrha could identify; only that the bottom half looked like a pair of wings, and the top half had split up into dots. When it had first broken off like that, she remembered animatedly talking with her mother about what it could be, if all soulmate marks reformed from blobs like that, while her mother hugged her and provided suggestions of her own. Pyrrha smiled wistfully at the memory. She had been overjoyed on her birthday when she’d first seen the colours – _three_ people to love and cherish – and been so excited, but now the feeling had warped. Twisted, in her chest.

Nobody else she’d met at Sanctum had more than one mark on their wrist. A couple of other students had pointed hers out when she’d first joined, but she never drew attention to it. And after her sudden rise to fame, the last thing Pyrrha wanted was to draw more publicity to herself. To give everyone another reason to think she was _special_. Even if it made her heart ache when she hid them. As if she were trying to hide her soulmates themselves.

Pyrrha laid down on the edge on her bed, and brought her wrist to her chest. She often wondered where they were, what they were like, when she was alone. Were any of them training to be Huntsmen or Huntresses, like she was? Were any of them in Argus, and she could just bump into them in the street or on one of the streetcars? Did they know who she was? She curled in on herself a little. In the back of her mind, Pyrrha knew that her status wouldn’t matter, but it didn’t stop the doubt from sinking in its claws. That, even if they were her soulmates, they’d see her as everyone else did; the celebrity, the ‘Invincible Girl’. Untouchable. Not Pyrrha Nikos, the shy girl who loved snowball fights and cheesy pop music and could wolf down an entire seafood platter when nobody was looking. Not _her_.

Her parents had always tried to reassure her, trying to soothe the doubts and hold her tight as Pyrrha would stay quiet and bury her face into her mother’s shoulder. That they’d love her just as much as she deserved to be and more, for all her quirks and flaws. They would _adore_ Pyrrha for the kind and brave and loving soul she was. And while it helped keep the thoughts at bay, the fear always lingered in shadow. They’d only love her because she was famous, they’d treat her just like everyone else did, they’d–

Deep breath. Exhale. Her head was starting to hurt with her chest. Pyrrha let her limbs uncurl, taking a few more breaths as she slowly spread out. Once her chest didn’t feel so tight, she reached over to her nightstand and picked up her scroll. There may still be another two years to go at Sanctum, but Pyrrha had already started looking at the Huntsmen Academies in the other kingdoms. She couldn’t stay in Mistral. Having two years left at Sanctum was just about bearable, but four more years? It would be suffocating.

Besides, there was no way she was ever going to find her soulmates at Haven.

***

Beacon was a _lot_ bigger than he’d anticipated. As if it weren’t bad enough that he’d spent most of his journey there throwing up on the airship, but now Jaune was _lost_. By the time he’d recovered everyone else had already left the ship, leaving him to navigate Beacon’s vast courtyards on his own. Even heading straight for the main building, Jaune couldn’t see anyone around and had no way of telling if he was heading for the front door. _Of course I’m gonna be late today_ , he thought bitterly.

Though his thoughts were quickly distracted when he heard a loud _BANG_ from nearby. Despite the natural instinct to run away from whatever had exploded, Jaune’s curiosity won out as he headed back towards the landing dock. There wasn’t much to suggest that there had been any explosion at all; just some settled soot in a small crater in the cobblestones. But his attention was more focused on the girl slumped there, looking dejected, clad entirely in black and red. At least he wasn’t the only one having a rough first day. Jaune wandered over, before leaning down and offering his hand to help her up. “Hey,” he said gently. She blinked up at him and he smiled. “I’m Jaune.”

She smiled back up at him, and took his hand. “Ruby,” she said, and brushed some of the soot off her skirt once she was stood up. Then Ruby squinted at his face, and sniggered a little. “Aren’t you the guy who threw up on the ship?” Great.

They seemed to get along almost right away, despite their teasing of each other’s misfortunes on their way to the main building of the school. Jaune was definitely a bit intimidated when Ruby suddenly showed off her weapon, a scythe almost as big as she was, and wielded it around like it was nothing. Even with her praise he felt his own weapons paled in comparison. A scythe that’s also a gun was _so much cooler_ than a shield that got smaller and sword that was … a sword. But the anxiety didn’t truly set in until Ruby mentioned she’d forged her weapon herself – _maybe_ applying for a Huntsmen Academy with no experience whatsoever had been a bad idea. Maybe. Hopefully he’d pick everything up quick enough that it wouldn’t be an issue.

When Ruby flicked her scythe away so she could carry it again, Jaune noticed a flash of something on her wrist. “Oh, hey, is that,” he stammered, gesturing to her arm. “Is that your soulmate mark?”

Ruby tilted her head, before looking at her wrist and grinning. “Yeah, it is!” she said. “It’s okay, I don’t mind. You wanna see it?” Jaune nodded, but secretly hoped she wouldn’t ask him to show his. That would be difficult to explain.

Ruby rolled up her sleeve a little to reveal her mark fully, contrasting completely with her outfit. It was bright green, almost luminous, as if it had been drawn on with a highlighter. The shape was still quite blurred, but it looked like a bow, or possibly a butterfly, though it was a little crooked and wonky. “I haven’t met anyone with a green aura. I wonder if I’ll meet them here,” Ruby said. Jaune mumbled a response, not having a clue what she meant by aura and how that tied to the marks.

Humming, Ruby traced her mark with her finger before pulling her sleeve back down and looking up at Jaune. “So, what about you? Yours is probably a lot clearer than mine,” she said, but reading the unease on his face, quickly added, “but you don’t have to if you don’t want to! It’s okay if you don’t want to show yours.”

He chuckled. “It’s alright, really,” Jaune assured her, and took a breath. “It’s not that I don’t _want_ to show, or that I’m uncomfortable, or anything like that. It’s just, I dunno, I don’t know how to explain it.” Ruby waited patiently, not pressing, support shining in her eyes. Jaune smiled, just a little, and took his left glove off and showed his wrist to Ruby. There was a pause, Jaune holding his breath, until Ruby started _beaming_.

“Yours are so pretty!” she exclaimed. “The colours match really well too! They’re definitely odd shapes though, these two are so pointy.”

Jaune hummed, smiling, mimicking her movements from earlier and running his fingers over the marks. But the nervousness still hung in the air. “You don’t think it’s weird?” he asked. “Y’know, that I have three?”

“Nah, it’s not weird at all! I mean, my dad has two, and so does Yang,” Ruby said. Her smile widened to a grin, and she began lightly bouncing on her toes. “Besides, think of all the extra birthday presents you’ll get! And super warm hugs!” Jaune couldn’t help giggling along with her, tracing over his marks again.

“Yeah, you’re right.” Jaune was hoping he could find at least _one_ of them here, if not at Beacon then in Vale. The red mark boded well for them being a Huntsman or Huntress, its sharp lines and angles depicting what could either be a spear or a javelin. The pink lightning bolt, the first of the three to become fully clear, was a good chance as well. His last one, still a bit fuzzy on the edges, was the most confusing, though the flower was definitely beautiful. Darker than the lightning, possibly a water lily? They’d all make sense once he met them. He hoped they’d all like him. Well, surely they would, that was kind of how this thing worked. But Jaune was still nervous; his hometown was _tiny_ , just on the outskirts of Vale, so meeting a lot of new people, even if three he was already prepared to cherish for the rest of his life, was a bit daunting.

At least he’d made a friend, he thought as he put his glove on and smiled back at Ruby. “Thanks, Ruby,” Jaune said.

“No problem!” she beamed. “Hey, we can help each other find our soulmates!” A small frown crossed her features. “Wait, where are we going?”

Jaune quickly looked around, noting the fountain they were circling and that they still hadn’t reached the front entrance of the school. “Oh I dunno, I was following you,” he said. “You think there might be a directory? Or maybe a food court? Some kind of recognisable landmark?” Ruby sniggered. “Is that a no?”

Ruby giggled again. “That’s a no.”

***

Moving in with a group of strangers actually turned out be a lot easier and better than they’d expected. Well, Ren and Nora weren’t strangers to each other, but they’d all expected suddenly going to live with new people you’d only met a few hours earlier while fighting a giant Deathstalker to be … odd, at the very least. Yet it wasn’t. Jaune was already used to sharing space, having grown up with seven sisters, and Pyrrha, despite her never having shared a room with anyone before, seemed especially excited to be with and get to know new people.

A fresh start. For all of them.

They could hear the bustling in RWBY’s dorm across the hall as they sorted their own belongings. Pyrrha had briefly raised an eyebrow at how little Nora and Ren had brought with them, but didn’t press as she set her case on her bed, and giggled as Nora started bouncing on hers. “So, what’re we gonna do, team?” the smaller girl asked, stopping her jumping when Ren lightly tapped her arm.

“Uh, I thought we were unpacking?” Jaune said in the middle of taking some of his hoodies out of his bag.

“But that’s _boring_ ,” Nora whined. “We should do something fun for our first evening as a team! Explore the school or go into Vale or something.” She gasped and beamed at Ren. “Ren, you should make us pancakes! Pyrrha and Jaune need to know how good they are!”

“Nora, we had dinner not even an hour ago,” Ren said calmly. “Besides, we don’t have any ingredients yet.” Nora flopped down onto her bed with a huff, and Pyrrha giggled at her again.

“We really should unpack,” Pyrrha said. “Or at least just have our clothes put away, otherwise we’ll never get it done.” Nora groaned. “But exploring the school is a good idea. We’d get to know our way around before classes start so we don’t get lost. And getting to know each other on a walk instead of fighting Grimm in a forest sounds lovely, too.”

Jaune laughed, and Pyrrha felt her chest flutter at that, just for a second. “Well, when you put it like that,” he said, still chuckling. “Ren? What do you think?” Ren simply nodded and hummed an affirmation, putting away his clothes in one of the wardrobes and gently nudging Nora to prompt her to get up and do the same. There was a mumble of protest, but with the promise that they’d go out afterwards, Nora set about putting her clothes away too, joining Pyrrha at one of the wardrobes to hang up her skirts.

Once they’d all changed out of their combat outfits into something more comfortable, the four of them set off on their walk around the school. It had definitely been a good idea; impossibly, the building seemed even bigger on the inside, full of labyrinthine corridors and tall looming doors. They chattered along the way, mostly introducing themselves properly when not pointing things out on their journey. Nora babbled excitedly about her and Ren’s adventures together, arms flailing while Ren only interjected whenever he felt it was necessary. He did promise them all pancakes as soon as they had ingredients, a little because Nora begged him to but mostly, Ren said himself, because he enjoyed cooking. Jaune recounted his childhood growing up with so many siblings, Nora laughing at the antics and asking if they could do things like making blanket forts in the dorm.

Pyrrha was strangely quiet, laughing along but not really saying much, and kept fiddling with the ends of her sleeves at her wrists. Nora seemed to notice, twirling around in her place at the front of the group to face the taller girl. “What about you, Pyrrha? Tell us about you!” she exclaimed, bouncing on her toes.

Surprised, Pyrrha blinked, wide-eyed. “I, uh,” she stammered. Her expression saddened a little, and she looked down at the floor as she continued softly, “I’m not sure what’s left to know that isn’t already public knowledge.”

“What about _you_ , though?” Jaune asked, startling his teammate.

Nora nodded in agreement. “You’re more than a fighter and a cereal mascot! Tell us something about the Pyrrha we’re with right now, not the celebrity.” Ren nodded in agreement, gently squeezing Pyrrha’s shoulder.

Nobody had ever asked her that before. Pyrrha found she couldn’t speak for a moment, words stuck in her chest as she felt tears start to form at the corners of her eyes. _No, you can do this. This is what you’ve always wanted_. She took a deep breath. “Well, I grew up in Argus,” she said, her words slow and unsure. “And I’ve always loved the snow there. There’s a small lake on the edge of the city that freezes in the winter sometimes, if it’s cold enough – my parents would take me skating there a lot when I was little. Sometimes I’d go between training sessions too, it’s quiet and peaceful there.” Pyrrha fiddled with her sleeves again, not seeing Nora’s eyes shining.

“That’s so cool!” the smaller girl said. “Aw, I’ve never been skating before, it sounds so fun!”

“It is,” Pyrrha murmured. A smile spread across her face, reaching her eyes and felt the beginnings of a blush in her cheeks. This was nice. Talking to people _properly_ for once.

“We should go,” Ren suggested. “There’s a rink in the city, we could visit on a weekend or extended free periods when we don’t have work to do.”

“Sounds like a good idea!” Jaune said, beaming. “I guess that can be our next ‘team bonding activity’.” He grinned and raised an eyebrow at Nora, who fell into a fit of giggles. She took Pyrrha’s hands in hers and began spinning them both around, babbling how excited she was and that Pyrrha _had_ to teach her how to skate, Jaune and Ren chuckling at the pair of them. Pyrrha couldn’t help but laugh too as she spun. Finally, she could breathe, a chance to relax and be herself with people who liked _her_.

She could get used to this, she thought, trying not to pay attention to the fluttering in her chest.

***

It had not been a good week. Cardin had managed to sink his claws into Jaune, leading to their leader being largely absent and he had just _taken_ what CRDL threw at him. Nora still couldn’t help her fists shaking a little when she remembered how disappointed Pyrrha had looked, heartbreak clouding her emerald eyes, and Ren had been even quieter and more withdrawn than usual, barely saying a word most of the week. Even the little she saw of Jaune he had looked miserable, following Cardin around with a face like he’d literally rather be anywhere else.

Nora never wanted to see any of them like that again. Ever.

Right now, she was busy wolfing down pancakes, sat on the kitchen table behind Ren who was cooking another batch at the stove. Pyrrha had said she’d be joining them but was yet to show up, and like the rest of the week, there had been no word from Jaune. She tried to ignore the pit in her chest; after what happened in Forever Fall earlier, maybe things would go back to how they had been. Hopefully.

They were both distracted by the kitchen door opening, Nora with a mouthful of pancake, and looked over to see Pyrrha coming in, Jaune trailing behind her, the pair still in their uniforms. Both Ren and Nora shared a look but didn’t say anything. Jaune had the faintest trace of a smile, but his eyes were shining as if he were about to cry. “Guys, I -” he started, his voice faltering. Pyrrha rested a hand on his elbow, and Ren turned off the stove to pay proper attention. “Ren, Nora, and I know I already apologised to you Pyrrha but I need to say it to all of you,” Jaune said. He took a deep breath, and Nora noticed he was trembling slightly. “I am so sorry for how I’ve acted the past couple days. You guys, we’re a team and I’m supposed to lead you and … I let you down. The second Cardin got any kind of leverage over me I just folded and let him, and I just _left you_ and treated you all like a jerk. You’re my teammates, my best friends, and you deserved better. I promise I’ll do better, and try and be a better leader and a better friend, and I am _so sorry_.”

The silence hung heavy in the room. Jaune was still shaking, Pyrrha still at his side and now gently rubbing his arm. By the stove, Ren was almost oddly still, eyes wide. Letting the fork fall from her hand to the floor, Nora didn’t even think to be neat as she threw her plate to the side, leaping off the table and running to Jaune; she wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his chest. Startled, it took Jaune a second to react, slowly hugging her back, one hand resting in her hair. “We missed you,” Nora said, her words muffled in the fabric of Jaune’s blazer. Without missing a beat, Ren and Pyrrha moved into Jaune’s sides, the three of them rearranging their arms to all hold each other, with Nora huddled in the middle.

“I missed you all, too,” Jaune murmured, and pulled them all in just a bit closer.

“And what about Cardin?” Ren asked. His voice was quieter than usual, and looked up at the taller boy with soft eyes.

“He won’t be bothering us anymore. I promise.”

“Good,” Pyrrha and Nora said together, and Jaune didn’t need to look to know they were both grinning.

They stayed like that for a while, just holding each other. Dust, Jaune really had missed them. No matter what Cardin and his sidekicks threw at him from then on, he was _never_ leaving his team, his closest friends, ever again. He would have been happy to stay like that for hours, the rest of the night even, but they eventually let each other go, Ren mentioning that he still had some pancake batter left to cook for Jaune and Pyrrha. Nora excitedly went to retrieve her plate that had landed _just_ at the edge of the table, munching down her remaining pancakes in hopes of possibly getting some more (even if she had already used all of the syrup).

They elected to take their food back to the dorm with them, sitting on the floor in a circle. Conversation drifted between whatever they could think to talk about, comfortable and familiar. Until, long after all the pancakes had gone, Ren tilted his head and asked softly, “what did you mean when you said Cardin had leverage over you?”

Jaune froze, blue eyes wide as he sighed and Pyrrha shot him a worried look. “Do you want me to say it?” Pyrrha asked gently, reaching over to squeeze his knee reassuringly.

“No, it’s okay,” Jaune said. “I said was going to be a better friend, and being honest is part of that. I need to be the one to say it.” Nora and Ren shifted closer, listening and murmuring reassurance as Jaune told them everything: his lack of training, his fake transcripts, his desperation to maintain the lie by sticking with Cardin when he’d found out. Jaune briefly glanced down at his wrist, just for a second, and winced, a pang of worry shooting through him, even though he couldn’t place why. Before he could fully look away, he saw Ren take both of his hands in his own, running his thumbs over Jaune’s knuckles and quietly thanked him for his honesty. To his side, Nora muttered how she was going to break CRDL’s legs and that, despite everything he’d said, that Jaune was _brave_. Not just for standing up for himself, but for carrying on at Beacon, despite his lack of training; for recognising what he’d gotten into and _carrying on_ , and not only for himself. He’d carried on for _them_.

At that point Jaune had to fight back tears, especially when Pyrrha and Ren began whispering similar sentiments. What on Remnant had he done to deserve these wonderful people? Pyrrha seemed to notice, her green eyes glinting with concern again. “Jaune?” she asked quietly. “Are you alright?”

Jaune grinned, bright and wide. “Yeah, I am,” he said, and pulled all of his teammates, his closest friends, in closer. “I’m fine. _We_ are fine.”

Nora giggled, before tackling Jaune to the floor in a hug and declaring they all go into Vale the next day after classes, just to hang out, as a team. Jaune sighed, smiling. Yeah, they were going to be fine. They’d get through this, and they would be okay.

Together.

***

The dance was in full swing. Music flowed through the hall, and weaved through students swaying and twirling in time with it. That’s what it looked like to Pyrrha, from her spot on the upper floor of the hall and glancing over the balcony. The cool night air blowing in from the outside balcony was a nice contrast to the warmth from inside, and gently breezed her ponytail in a little dance of its own.

She looked down at the bracelets on her arms. Long cuff bracelets, the gold metal light and decorated with graceful, intricate swirls and patterns. Sure, they matched her circlet and accented her crimson dress beautifully, but that wasn’t why she’d worn them. Sighing, Pyrrha slid off the bracelet on her left wrist, and traced her fingers over the familiar colours.

They were all fully formed now, the shapes bold on her skin. Pyrrha tried to ignore the stone in her stomach as her eyes traced over them, blaming the tears in the corners of her eyes on the wind. The yellow, definitely a shield, made her think of Jaune; how _fixated_ he’d been on asking Weiss to the dance. He hadn’t even looked at her twice. Even when they’d talked outside earlier, she still wished he’d asked her, even just as friends. Because she’d have gone with someone who saw her as _Pyrrha_ , the _first_ person to see her as something more than the celebrity. It had been so easy to fall for him.

And yet, as she ran her thumb over all three marks, part of her wished they’d all come to the dance as a _team_. Ren and Nora had attended together, and, from her place on the balcony, Pyrrha spied them twirling around on the dancefloor. She bit down the jealousy that threatened to rise up. They were her friends, it wasn’t fair to be upset like that, but then wasn’t this the same as Jaune? They’d always treated her as a person too, never having heard of her at all, and Pyrrha had never felt happier in her life than when she was with her teammates.

Recently, night after night, Pyrrha had traced her marks, in the dark, wondering if maybe, _maybe_. But she had no proof. Lightning and electricity weren’t that uncommon of semblances, if that mark was indicative of a semblance. Lotus flowers could mean _anything_ , the pink not narrowing it down at all. And even if the shape of the shield matched Jaune’s, Pyrrha knew it couldn’t be. His aura was _white_ , she’d unlocked it and seen it herself. Sure, on rare occasions someone’s aura could be a totally different colour when first unlocked, gradually shifting and settling just like one’s hair or eye colour, but she’d never seen it. She didn’t even know what colours Nora and Ren’s auras were, thankfully never having been in a situation to see them break, but couldn’t help herself hoping they were two particular shades of pink.

With another sigh, Pyrrha slipped her bracelet back on, and rubbed her eyes with the heels of her hands to hide the tears still threatening to fall. This was a party, she should at least try and have a good time. She made her way down the stairs to the dancefloor, weaving through the crowds of students to the punch table until she felt someone tap her shoulder. “You’re finally here!” Nora exclaimed, throwing her arms around Pyrrha. “You look amazing!”

“Sorry I’m late,” Pyrrha said. She returned the hug, letting her heart warm a little from the closeness. “And thank you. You look adorable.” And she did; Nora’s puffy pastel pink skirt swished about her knees as she somehow bounced on her toes in her heels.

Nora squealed happily, and took both of Pyrrha’s hands in hers. “We saved a table, come on!” the smaller girl declared, dragging them both across the dancefloor while Pyrrha giggled. She spotted Ren, sat at one of the tables and idly running his finger around the rim of his glass, looking up at the pair of them with a small smile when they reached him. “I’m glad you’re here,” was all he said as he stood, gently placing a hand on Pyrrha’s bicep. She couldn’t help but try and fight the blush; just like always, Ren knew what to say with so few words, and her heart warmed all over again. Pyrrha opened her mouth to speak, to thank him and compliment how handsome he was in his suit, but before she could muster any words all three of them were distracted by the steadily increasing laughter filling the hall.

Maybe tonight wouldn’t be so bad after all.

They danced for _hours_. Their synchronised dance and, especially, Jaune’s outfit were the talk of the evening, chatter still floating around the hall even when the excitement began to quieten down. Jaune hadn’t slowed down at all, stating dancing in sneakers was a lot easier, and had taken turns twirling Pyrrha and Nora, all their dresses mesmerising as they spun. Ren, worn out after the first hour of dancing, watched them from their table, a soft content smile on his face. In the back corner by the punch table, he spotted Ruby and Penny doing their own silly dances and spinning each other around.

He was distracted from his people watching as Nora skipped over, dropping herself into his lap. Ren chuckled. “I don’t know how Pyrrha can wear heels all the time,” Nora said, and kicked off her own shoes under the table. “My feet are killing me.” Ren hummed, glancing back over at his teammate who was _still_ dancing.

That’s when he properly noticed it. The light glinted off the gold on her arms, and the gears started turning in his mind. Nora tilted her head back, and turned in his lap so she could look at him properly when she noticed him frowning. “What is it?” she asked.

Ren tilted his head a little, coming to rest his on top of Nora’s head. “Have you ever seen Pyrrha without her sleeves down?” he murmured, so quiet that Nora barely heard him.

“What? What’s that got to do with anything?” Nora giggled, and leaned into Ren’s chest. “Sure, we have to wear long sleeves with the uniform and she’s got long gloves and an armguard, but that’s for combat. Besides, Pyrrha’s dress is literally sleevel-” Her voice trailed off, and Ren knew she’d realised it too.

They _hadn’t_ ever seen Pyrrha without her sleeves down. Well, more specifically, they had never seen her with her wrists _uncovered_.

It had never twigged before, since her uniform and combat outfit were the clothes she wore most often. But now that Nora thought about it, even when they were all just chilling in the dorm, or hanging out on the weekend, Pyrrha had always worn sweaters or big cardigans with large flappy sleeves (and Nora always told her how adorable she looked in them, secretly relishing the blush that matched the taller girl’s hair). Even all of her pyjamas had long sleeves. And now, as Nora watched the lights glitter off of her teammate’s bracelets as she continued to twirl around, it all began to click together.

Almost reflexively, Nora reached for her own wrist. Her touch lingered over the red spear, as Ren covered her hand with his own. “Do you think she’s covering it on purpose? Why?” Nora asked quietly. Ren made a sound against her head, and Nora cuddled more into him. “Is she ashamed of her mark?”

“We don’t know that,” Ren said. “We don’t even know if it’s anything to do with her soulmate mark. Besides, if Pyrrha wants to tell us anything, she will, in her own time, and we’ll be here to listen.”

“Yeah,” Nora mumbled. And even though it was left unspoken, she knew Ren was thinking the same; if the red spear was Pyrrha, why was she covering her mark? Was she hiding _them_? And despite having no proof that their marks being for their teammates, Ren and Nora had found, over their time at Beacon so far, they had _wanted_ it to be true. But until Jaune or Pyrrha showed them their marks, all the two of them could do was hope and pine.

The party was starting to calm down fully, most of the students having left, and the announcement for the last dance called out. Nora hopped off Ren’s lap, a smile returning to her face. “Fancy one last team dance?” she asked, grinning as she reached out her hand to him. Ren chuckled, taking her hand and standing up. “You want Jaune to dip you this time, or can I go?” She waggled her eyebrows and smirked.

“We’ll see,” Ren said, rolling his eyes but still blushed. They made their way across the dancefloor to their teammates, hand in hand. Jaune and Pyrrha greeted them eagerly, both smiling brightly and immediately taking their hands and pulling them into their dance. None of them let go of each other, even when their proximity made them clumsy and bump into each other. It was wonderful, and a perfect end to the best night at Beacon they’d had so far.

***

For all the time they’d spent preparing for it, it felt like the Vytal Tournament had gone by in no time at all. It was incredible to Jaune, as he thought about their team victory against BRNZ, that the festival had only started a week ago. It had all just flown by.

And now here he was, seven days later, standing in the middle of the stage of Amity Arena surrounded by his teammates while the crowds roared with applause around them. To the right, RWBY were celebrating, silver medals around the necks as Ruby bounced excitedly and Yang carried Weiss and Blake on each shoulder. To the left, SSSN were high-fiving and fist-bumping each other and threw their bronze medals around in the air, Sun and Neptune raising their joined hands in celebration. Nora caught Jaune’s attention when she launched herself at him and hugged herself to his back; Ren moving into his side and resting a hand on Jaune’s shoulder as Jaune laughed and his gaze swept across the gold discs hanging from their necks. Just in front of them, at the edge of the podium, Pyrrha was giving a victor’s speech with Ozpin, holding a trophy in her arms.

While pretty much everyone knew she would win, it certainly wasn’t a plain cut victory. The final fight had been _especially_ close, Pyrrha and Yang being so evenly matched for most of it, exchanging friendly banter with every blow. But just as she always did, Pyrrha managed to gain the upper hand, with both of their auras just under ten percent, clearly catching Yang off guard and getting enough hits in before the blonde could recover to decisively claim victory. Nora’s cheers were heard all around the arena, before she’d taken Jaune and Ren’s hands and they all leapt down to join their Champion, wrapping her up in a hug. They were so proud of her.

The ceremony went on for what felt like _far_ too long. Too many speeches and other awards. Jaune’s ears were ringing by the time they left Amity and were back at the school, and wouldn’t be surprised if his teammates’ were too. Pyrrha looked especially exhausted, leaning slightly against Ren as they walked through the halls back to the dorms alongside RWBY. “We should go out and celebrate!” Yang declared. “There’s an awesome club in the city, and we can spend most of the night if we get ready now! Hey Pyrrha, we should have a dance-off! I bet I can beat you this time.” She smirked, Ruby and Nora giggling while Weiss and Blake rolled their eyes affectionately.

“That does sound like a lot of fun,” Pyrrha said, a small smile tugging at her lips. But Jaune could see the tiredness in her eyes, and recognised her smile; she was too polite to say no, even though she wanted to.

“Definitely!” Jaune said. He pulled Pyrrha and Ren into him by their shoulders, and smiled gently at them. “But do you think we could do that tomorrow? I think it’ll be a lot more fun once we’ve all rested and aren’t dead on our feet.”

“ _Boo_ , spoilsports,” Yang said, but was still grinning. “But you’re gonna go _down_ tomorrow, Nikos.”

“We’ll see about that, Xiao Long!” Nora said as she hopped onto Pyrrha’s back, resting her chin in scarlet hair while sticking her tongue out at Yang. The blonde did the same back, before being lightly dragged by her teammates towards their dorm. As RWBY and JNPR wished each other goodnight, Jaune noticed Weiss’ hands, her fingers lightly twined with Yang’s and Blake’s. He smiled. _Good for them_. Pyrrha whispered a small “thank you” as they all headed into their dorms, all but slumped against him.

Once inside, Pyrrha headed straight for the showers, eager to freshen up and collapse onto her bed in comfier clothes for the rest of the evening. Her teammates waited until she’d disappeared into the bathroom, only making their moves when they’d heard the click of the lock. “Do you have a movie picked out?” Nora asked, all of them on separate sides of the room as they changed into their pyjamas.

“Nah, Pyrrha can pick,” Jaune said. He adjusted the sleeves on his onesie and began grabbing all the blankets and pillows off the beds and arranged them on the floor. “You guys know what you wanna eat? Should we just order the usuals?” Nora nodded enthusiastically while Ren gave a thumbs up, heading to the kitchen to grab some drinks and cutlery. As Jaune got out his scroll to order their take out, Nora busied herself rummaging through the desk drawer. “We don’t need the fairy lights, Nora,” Jaune said, but was grinning.

“But what about mood lighting?” Nora pouted, fishing out the line of tiny star-shaped lights. “And they’re _cute_!” Jaune rolled his eyes, still grinning, but didn’t protest as she began to lay the fairy lights around the pile of blankets.

The three of them were all wrapped up and huddled together on the floor when they heard the bathroom door click open. They turned their heads to see Pyrrha step back in the room, now in her own brown pyjamas, and her long loose hair still damp. She looked back at them and froze, blinking in surprise. “What…?” Pyrrha asked quietly, stepping slowly over to her teammates. A smile crept across her face. “What is all this?”

“ _Well_ …” Nora began. “Yang was kind of right, you should celebrate.”

“But we thought you might enjoy something a little … quieter,” Ren added.

“So, we just put a messy cosy thing together so we can eat and watch a movie,” Jaune finished, grinning nervously.

There was a long pause, long enough for Jaune, Nora and Ren to exchange a worried look. Did Pyrrha not like it? A small sniffle caught their attention, and Pyrrha looked like she was about to cry. _Shit_. “Hey, Pyr, if you don’t want to it’s okay,” Jaune protested, words jumbling as he tried to speak quickly. “We can put everything away, well, the food’s still on its way but we can put the blankets back and-”

“I love it.” Her voice was so quiet they weren’t sure if they’d imagined it at first. Pyrrha rubbed her eyes and cleared her throat, but her smile was bright. “I love it,” she said again, louder and clearer, and moved towards them. “I’m sorry, it’s just…” She sniffed again as she sat between Ren and Jaune. “Nobody’s ever done something like this for me before.” Part of Jaune’s chest ached at that, and, judging from their faces, it looked like Ren and Nora felt it too.

Nora jumped up, striding over Jaune’s legs and dropping herself into Pyrrha’s lap. “Well, now you get to experience it!” she exclaimed. “And you get to pick the movie! Champion chooses!”

Pyrrha giggled a little. “If you insist,” she said, grinning and began sifting through the movies they’d laid out on the floor.

They didn’t start the movie until their take out arrived; Pyrrha looked ready to sob again when she opened her Mistrali seafood noodles. “It’s your favourite,” was all Ren had said, smiling warmly at her. The movie was a cheesy action flick from about a decade ago, not that any of them were truly focused on it. They all giggled at the silly clichéd dialogue in between mouthfuls of rice, and once everything was eaten and containers put aside, they cuddled in closer together. Jaune and Nora mimicked the silly action sequences, the small girl collapsing dramatically into his lap after being ‘killed’, Pyrrha leaning into Jaune’s chest and Ren into hers.

It was nice. Comfortable.

Nora curled up into Jaune’s lap as they continued their joking commentary, occasionally reaching over to boop Ren’s nose when he quietly chuckled at their antics. Pyrrha simply smiled, threading her fingers with Ren’s and sighed dozily. And sure enough, halfway through the movie, she was out like a light, still smiling softly. “This was nice,” Ren whispered.

“Yeah,” Jaune agreed, brushing Pyrrha’s bangs out of her face before doing the same to Ren, and ruffling Nora’s hair from where she still laid in his lap. “We should do it more often.”

“Yeah! We should,” Nora said. She sat up, and snuggled her head into Jaune’s chest. “It’s really nice, being all together like this.” Jaune and Ren both hummed affirmations, and, even though she was asleep, Pyrrha likely would have agreed too.

The fluttering feeling returned in his chest. This wasn’t like his crush on Weiss, this was deeper than that. It was the familiarity, settled warm in his bones. Jaune knew he had three soulmates – their colours and shapes embedded in his mind and his heart as much as his skin – and he’d often dream, spacing out in the library or during one of Port’s lectures, that they were his team. Even his occasional brainstorming with Ruby, keeping her word on her promise to help, hadn’t brought up any proof. Not that it stopped him imagining. Or wanting. Or his breath catching in his throat every time any or all of his teammates smiled at him.

All year, but certainly since the dance, Jaune knew he’d been falling, slowly, so slowly he hadn’t even noticed until the feelings were so present it made his head spin. And in his mind, his daydreams, he was sure he could see the same in their eyes, in turquoise and green and pink.

Jaune ignored the small clench in his stomach when he looked at the splashes of colour as he continued ruffling Nora’s hair. But looking at Nora snuggled in his lap, and Pyrrha asleep against his chest and Ren not far behind as he reached across to rest a hand on Jaune’s knee, Jaune knew he was too far gone to deny it.

He was in love with them.

He just wished it wasn’t only him, and the universe wasn’t so cruel.

***

Gunfire rang out through the woods as the last Nevermore dissolved into smoke. JNPR had been sent to the outskirts of a village, not too far out from Mountain Glenn, to deal with a small swarm of Nevermore before they became a threat to the people there. The Bullhead dropped them off earlier that morning, and was due to pick them up in an hour so, but had been on call in case of any emergencies. “That was the last one!” Pyrrha called out, turning Miló back into its xiphos form and placing it behind her back. “Anything else we need to do before the Bullhead comes back?” She and Ren made their way down from their attack points in the trees to where Jaune and Nora emerged from behind a row of boulders, having used them as a makeshift barricade.

“Don’t think so. But we should probably head to the village and let them know the swarm has been cleared out,” Jaune said, brushing some dirt out of his hair. “Great work, guys! You were amazing out there today.”

“Psh, don’t leave yourself out!” Nora said. She bumped Jaune’s arm with her shoulder. “You were awesome too!”

“Nora’s right,” Pyrrha agreed. “You’re really improving in combat. I- _we_ are proud of you.” Jaune couldn’t do anything other than blush, ducking his face away a little as he put Crocea Mors back in its sheath form on his hip.

“Do you think there’s anywhere we could get some lunch? I’m _starving_ ,” Nora asked, taking Jaune’s arm as they headed towards the village.

Pyrrha giggled, promising a large meal either in town or when they got back to Vale, and turned around to approach Ren. “You coming, Ren?” she asked, smiling, but it faded when she saw him frowning at the ground. “Ren?”

“Something’s wrong,” Ren murmured. He kept his gaze focused on the dirt, on the small crack between himself and Pyrrha, the small pebbles starting to rattle. Crouching a little, he pressed a hand to the ground, and almost immediately flinched back. Pyrrha was still walking over to him, and something was rumbling under the surface. Ren barely had time to say her name before launching himself into a run, stumbling over his feet to get to her, to all of them, in time.

And the ground burst open.

“REN!” The scream tore from all their throats, as a Grimm erupted from the ground, knocking Ren from the side and throwing him through the air, his back colliding with one of the trees and his already low aura from the previous fight shattering on impact. None of them had proper time to move or even take out their weapons as even more, slightly smaller Grimm followed the leader out from the dirt.

_Creeps_.

“I’m gonna get Ren and call for backup!” Jaune shouted. “Are you two gonna be okay on your own?”

Nora looked over at Pyrrha and grinned. “We got this!” she said, holding Magnhild in its grenade launcher form.

“We’ll hold them off as long as we can,” Pyrrha reassured, before turning to smile at Jaune. “Go help Ren. We’ll be fine, we promise. Please, just make sure he’s okay.” Jaune nodded once, before taking out his scroll and breaking out into a sprint.

“This is Jaune Arc, requesting immediate backup and emergency transport for JNPR! We’ve got a worse situation than planned and we’re a man down!” he all but screamed into the device, hardly breathing until he got a response from the Bullhead pilots. Ten minutes away. They could hold on for ten minutes. They had to.

Ren was collapsed on his front when Jaune got to him, still breathing but not moving. There was a gash on the right side of his head from the impact with the tree, a little trail of blood running down his eyebrow. _No._ “Ren? Are you awake?” Jaune’s words came out a hurried blur, as he gently rolled Ren onto his back. “Please, _please_ , be awake-”

There was an audible wince, and Ren scrunched his face in pain, eyes slowly blinking but not focusing. “Jaune?” he whispered, voice strained.

“Oh, thank _dust_ , you’re awake,” Jaune said. Didn’t stop his heart hammering in his chest. More booms echoed behind him. “I think- I think there was a nest of Creeps under the woods, and we must have gotten their attention fighting the Nevermores earlier.” Ren’s eyes widened, but Jaune kept a hand on his shoulder to stop him trying to get up. “I’ve called the Bullhead back to get us, Nora and Pyrrha are holding the Creeps off until they get here. You’ve got a bad cut on your head, are you hurt anywhere else?”

“Arm,” Ren managed through gritted teeth, and weakly raised his right hand. “Chest too … this side.” His breathing was starting to come out as a slight wheeze; even if he’d had any aura left to heal himself, they had to get Ren out of here and to a med bay _now_.

With no medical supplies on hand, Jaune could only think to place one hand on Ren’s head, just a little pressure to try and stop the bleeding, the other going to the right side of Ren’s chest, trying to find the exact point of injury. The ammunition and cries of Grimm still rang out. “The Bullhead should be here in just a few minutes,” Jaune said. “Just, try and stay awake-”

“Jaune.”

“-And we can get you to the med bay as soon as we’re back-”

“Jaune.”

“-And you’re gonna be fine and Pyrrha and Nora are gonna be fine and-”

“ _Jaune_. Your _hands_.” Ren’s voice finally broke through to him, and for second, Jaune just blinked at him. He hadn’t even fought the Creeps or been hit by a Nevermore, what could be wrong with his hands? Then he looked down.

His hands were _glowing_. Just like his whole body had when Pyrrha had unlocked his aura, though this time yellow rather than white. Did auras always change colours? He’d have to ask later. Jaune also saw the points where he was touching Ren were glowing too, but were magenta, before spreading across his whole body. “Is that your aura?” Jaune asked. “I thought it broke when the Creep launched you.”

“It did,” Ren said, his tone sounding less strained. “I think you’re healing it? No, wait.” He slowly pushed himself to sit, another small hiss escaping between his teeth, and steadily began to move his arm back and forth. “I think your aura is _helping_ mine. It’s my aura that’s healing me, you seem to amplifying it.” Flexing his arm one last time, Ren smiled weakly at Jaune. “It would appear you’ve unlocked your semblance.” Jaune opened his mouth to speak, but couldn’t find any words, just staying frozen in place as the rumble of the Bullhead came into earshot.

“Can you walk?” he managed, looping an arm around Ren as he watched the girls still firing as they ran for their transport. With a nod, the smaller man stood and put an arm around Jaune’s shoulders for support. It was nice; well, it would have been nicer holding Ren like this if he wasn’t injured. The aircraft landed just ahead of them, the support helping clear the Creeps to give them all space to get on board.

Fortunately, while many, the Creeps had proven not too strong once the leader had been killed, the weaponry on the Bullhead clearing the last of them before taking off. Jaune sat alone in the waiting area of Beacon’s med bay, staring at his hands. Pyrrha and Nora should be back any second, their injuries only amounting to a few cuts and bruises, but Ren had been taken to be seen separately. The nurses had told him Ren would be fine, they just needed to make sure there was nothing serious lurking, and praised his quick healing. Staring at his hands, Jaune tried to focus on manifesting his semblance again, and his eyes widened as bright yellow flickered over his palms again.

“Jaune Arc?” He was startled by one of the nurses, who was poking his head around one of the doors. Jaune let his aura fade away and stood up. “You can come in now, the rest of your team are already with him.”

“Thank you,” Jaune said, weaving his way around the nurse and into the room.

Ren was sat up on the bed, some gauze on his head and his right arm in a sling, though the lack of a cast suggested it wasn’t broken, thankfully. Nora sat cross-legged in his lap, arms wild as she excitedly recounted the fight from earlier, while Pyrrha sat in a chair to the side, one of her hands gently threading through Ren’s hair while the other held his free hand. “Are you all okay?” was the only thing Jaune could think to say, pulling up another chair to sit beside Pyrrha. She smiled at him, lightly tapping her foot against his since both of her hands were occupied.

“Nora and I are fine,” she said, chuckling when Nora gave an enthusiastic thumbs up and remarked how those Creeps “never stood a chance”. To their side, Ren hummed contentedly as Pyrrha continued running her fingers through his hair. “The nurses said Ren has a mild concussion though, so they want to keep him in for an hour or so just to keep an eye on him.”

“But they said we can stay with him!” Nora flopped over, so she was now up against Ren’s chest. Another hum purred in his chest when she booped his nose, and then she glared playfully at Jaune. “And what’s this I hear about you healing Ren, mister? I can’t believe you unlocked your semblance and I wasn’t there to see it!” She folded her arms and pouted, but giggled when Pyrrha took her hand from Ren’s and lightly poked her between her eyebrows.

“My arm probably was probably broken before you started helping my aura heal me,” Ren said, a small smile on his face as he turned to face Jaune, his voice quiet but no longer strained.

Jaune blushed and chuckled nervously, and looked down at his hands again. “I think I can use my aura to amplify others’,” he said slowly. “I mean … it was Ren’s own aura healing him, I just made it stronger. I don’t know if I need to be touching someone or if I can, um, project it to other people?”

“Hopefully next time you can test it when none of us are in danger and seriously hurt,” Nora grinned, and all of them chuckled.

“I sure hope so.” Jaune flexed his fingers a little, and remembered. “Oh! I was gonna ask you guys once we were back. Is it, uh. Is it normal for aura to change colours?”

The way the colour drained from Pyrrha’s face didn’t fill him with confidence. “What?” she asked quietly.

“Well, when you unlocked my aura for me, it was white, right? I’m pretty sure it was white.” Pyrrha nodded. “But when I used my semblance to help Ren, it was yellow, and not like an off-white yellow. Like, butter yellow. And I thought maybe it was just my semblance, but when I brought my aura up in the waiting room just now, it was still yellow. Is that normal?”

Ren sat up a little straighter. “I’ve heard of people’s aura changing colours over time. It’s uncommon, yes, but totally normal,” he said, and Nora nodded enthusiastically.

“Yeah! A retired huntsman we met in Mistral said his was blue when he unlocked it as a kid, but once he’d started at Haven it had turned bright green and stayed like that.” Her eyes lit up and flashed an excited smile at Ren; odd, but Jaune didn’t question it. “You’ll be just fine, Jaune, we promise!” Just like she had to Ren earlier, Nora reached over to boop Jaune’s nose, comically stretching across the med ward bed so far she nearly fell out of it. Jaune laughed, playfully batting her hand away. She tilted her head back to look up at Ren. “And we’re not leaving until _you’re_ fine and we can all go back to the dorm together.”

“Oh no, the horror,” he drawled sarcastically, all of them laughing again.

Well, almost all.

“Pyrrha?” Ren asked gently. “Are you alright?”

Pyrrha startled from her staring at the floor, eyes wide as her gaze flitted between all of theirs. Both of her hands had left Ren and she was nervously rubbing her thumb over her left wrist, but stopped when attention shifted to her. “Oh! I’m fine, I’m fine,” she said, a little too quickly. Her expression softened, and she took Ren and Nora’s hands in one of hers, and Jaune’s in the other. “I’m just … I’m just glad you’re okay. That all of you are safe, and we’re all here still together.”

“Yeah, we are,” Jaune said, running his thumb over her knuckles. Recognising her mood shift, the sniffling and foot tapping, Ren and Nora extended their arms out to invite Pyrrha, and Jaune too, onto the bed with them. There was a mumble of protest from the taller girl, that all four of them absolutely wouldn’t fit on the bed, but Nora still pulled her up, that if the nurses told them off they’d deal with it then.

Of course, the bed was _far_ too small, Jaune and Nora balancing on the edges with Pyrrha and Ren squished in the middle. Pyrrha had stopped her anxious shuffling, merely sighing happily. They were safe, that was what mattered. They were safe, and still here.

She tried not to let the colours linger in her mind too long.

***

_This is getting ridiculous_ , Nora thought, sitting on Ren’s lap and watching Jaune ‘read’ his textbook. It had been a week since the incident by Mountain Glenn, and Pyrrha had been acting strangely. Everything had been fine when they’d finally gotten back from the med ward, but since the day after she’d been … distant. Skittish. Despite all their plans to study together for their upcoming exams, she’d spend almost the whole day in the library on her own, or with Weiss and Blake, not coming back until dark. Even during meal times Pyrrha was quieter than usual, always blushing and very pointedly not looking any of her teammates in the eye. She’d always insist she was fine, that they hadn’t done anything, but it was undeniable now that something was wrong.

But why wouldn’t she say anything?

Jaune was clearly upset by it too, holed up at the desk claiming to study but hadn’t turned a page in nearly an hour. Nora shuffled off Ren’s lap and across his bed enough so she could face him properly, and hugged her knees to her chest. “What happened?” she asked quietly. Then, even softer, “were we wrong?”

Ren took her left hand in both of his own, gently turning it over to reveal her marks, and did the same with his own. “I don’t know,” he said. “But we’ll talk to her tomorrow. Jaune too.”

Nora sniffed a little, and moved her wrist so it was next to Ren’s. “I want us to be right,” she whispered. “I, _we_ , love them. But now it feels like everything might fall apart and I don’t wanna lose them.”

“I know.” Ren held both her hands in his again, their left wrists brushing; _me too_ left unsaid but there. Nora had always been better at words. Looking over at the clock on the bedside table, Ren sighed and leaned forward to rest his forehead on hers. “It’s late. We should get ready for bed.” Nora nodded.

“I’ll tell Jaune,” she said, booping her nose against Ren’s before getting up off his bed.

Jaune still hadn’t really moved, his frown flicking between the book and his notification-less scroll. At least he’d already changed into his pyjamas, it wouldn’t take a lot of convincing to get him to go to bed, even if none of them had been sleeping well. Nora tapped his shoulder, just to let him know she was there, hugging him from behind and nuzzling her head into his shoulder. “Hey,” she murmured.

“Hey,” Jaune replied, and leaned back into her touch.

“We’re gonna head to bed. You coming?”

Jaune yawned, then sighed. “Sure,” he said. He sat up straighter, and wriggled his shoulders a bit. “I don’t think any of this is sinking in, anyway. I can give it another go in the morning.” Picking up his scroll, he checked his messages again – still nothing.

Nora hugged him a little tighter. “She’ll come back. She always does. And we’ll talk to her tomorrow, with Ren. All of us.” There was no reply, but Jaune reached up to squeeze her arm lightly, rubbing her forearm with his thumb, before standing up and stretching.

They all got ready for bed in relative silence, only saying goodnight to each other before settling in for the night and turning off the lamps. Little slivers of moonlight shone in through the gap in the curtains, silver patterns slowly gliding over the middle of the room. Nora had given up on trying to force herself to sleep (keeping her eyes squeezed shut for so long had been so uncomfortable), instead idly watching the silvery glow dance around, or listening to the chatter of a handful of students outside, while curled into a ball on her side and hugging herself. As usual, Ren was near silent as he slept, while Jaune was snoring lightly and occasionally fidgeting, the only sounds inside their dorm. It was still too quiet.

Nora was startled by the sudden light from their door opening, soft yellows from the hallway briefly illuminating the room, but didn’t move, feigning being asleep. She heard the gentle click of the door as it closed, and the light thud of Pyrrha’s bag landing on the floor. At least Pyrrha had come back before midnight this time. Yet, after that, the room was oddly quiet again; Nora had expected to hear Pyrrha moving around, either putting her books away or getting ready for bed. But there was nothing. Maybe Pyrrha was just being extra quiet because she thought they were all asleep? Then she heard it. A few quiet sniffles, followed by a wet, choked off sob that was quickly muffled.

Pyrrha was crying.

Nora didn’t even try to be quiet as she sat up, eyes straining in the dark to see the taller girl. Pyrrha was sat on the floor, back against the door, hiding her face in her knees and clutching her left arm to her chest as her body trembled with her sobs. Swinging her feet over the edge of the bed so quickly she nearly lost her balance, Nora rushed to her teammate, kneeling on the floor in front of her. “Pyrrha?” she asked, concerned but gentle, not wanting to startle Pyrrha or possibly freak her out. Pyrrha’s head snapped up, emerald eyes sparkling with tears. “Are you okay? Did something happen? Are you hurt?”

Pyrrha sniffed. “Nora, I…” she started, but any more she wanted to say was cut off by another small sob.

“Hey, come here,” Nora whispered, pulling her teammate into a hug. Any fight Pyrrha had to stop crying was gone, crumpling in Nora’s arms and burying her face in Nora’s shoulder as she wept. She was still quiet, and Nora fought back her own tears as she gently rubbed Pyrrha’s back and murmured reassurances in her ear; seeing Pyrrha so defeated and hurting made her heart break. It wasn’t until she felt a hand rest against her collarbone that Nora realised: Pyrrha’s sleeve was rolled up, and she’d been looking at her left wrist when she’d starting crying. _Oh no_.

Eventually, the sniffs ceased, and Pyrrha slumped completely into Nora, exhausted but still trembling a bit. She wiped her eyes with her hand and looked back at the shorter girl, a small, sad smile on her face. “I got your shirt wet,” Pyrrha muttered, a blush spreading across her face.

“Psh, it’s fine, don’t worry about it,” Nora said, and as Pyrrha opened her mouth to speak again she cut her off. “And you don’t need to apologise for waking me up either, I was already awake. And even if I wasn’t, this is more important.” She cupped Pyrrha’s cheek and wiped away a few more tears with her thumb. “What happened, Pyr? Were you hurt? Do you want to talk about it?”

“No, no, I’m not hurt, nothing like that. And I _do_ want to talk, it’s just…” Pyrrha took a deep breath, and looked past Nora to the other half of their team, still asleep. Her voice got quieter. “I want to talk to all of you, together. And I don’t want to wake the boys up, so can we … talk, in the morning?”

“Of course we can.” Nora briefly touched her forehead to Pyrrha’s. “Kinda works out actually, since me and Ren wanted to have a team talk too. We can talk after you.” Seeing Pyrrha’s eyes widen, she quickly added, “it’s nothing bad, I promise! Just something that’s been on our minds for a while, but it’s definitely not bad.” There was a sigh of relief and a nod from the taller girl, before squeezing Nora in a brief hug and disappearing into the bathroom to change and clean up a little.

Sitting on her bed, Nora absently flicked through her scroll, something about pancakes that she wasn’t really focused on. The soft creak of the bathroom door opening did get her attention, seeing Pyrrha walk back in, now in her brown pyjamas and her hair redone in a very loose braid. “You didn’t need to wait up for me,” she whispered, a small, sheepish smile on her face.

“I wanted to,” Nora said. She flashed a warm smile, and Pyrrha returned it. “Now c’mere.” Pyrrha blinked, startled, before Nora stretched out her arms and made grabby hands. “I just thought you might not want to be on your own after all that, and you can stay with me tonight. Y’know, if you want to.” Another small pause and Pyrrha chuckled, slowly stepping over to Nora’s bed.

“Thank you,” she whispered softly, and flopped down on the mattress next to the small girl.

“It’s okay,” Nora said, shuffling and pulling the covers over them both, then hugged Pyrrha to her. “It’s okay.”

They were both out within a couple of minutes.

When she awoke the next morning, Nora was still wrapped in Pyrrha’s arms, the taller girl still asleep with her face buried in the crook of Nora’s neck. Nora smiled. Steadily, she untangled herself from Pyrrha’s grasp, leaving her to continue resting, and Nora sat on the edge of the bed and swung her feet.

Opposite her, Jaune was sat on his own bed, still in his pyjamas, reading one of his _X-Ray and Vav_ comics. “You two looked cosy,” he said, smirking. He was smiling, but something in his voice betrayed something else. Jealousy?

“Shut up,” Nora chuckled. Hopping off her bed, she jumped up onto Jaune’s, reaching over to ruffle his hair. In a hushed voice, she recounted what had happened the previous night, how Pyrrha had come back late again, how Nora heard her crying, and that Pyrrha, and then she and Ren, wanted to talk once they were all up and awake. Jaune had simply nodded and agreed, hugged her before they started a new game on their scrolls. When Pyrrha woke up around an hour later, both of them wrapped her in a hug, making sure was okay. Pyrrha chuckled, melting into their hold, stating she was feeling much better. Though, Nora noticed, she’d started rubbing her left wrist, but guessed she was just nervous for when they’d get to talk.

Unsurprisingly, Ren woke up last, nearing ten o’clock (thank dust they only had afternoon classes today). He’d smiled when seeing them all cuddled together on the bed, widening when Nora beamed at him and gestured for him to join. A frown edged into his features when Ren saw Pyrrha’s face, her cheeks pink and eyes a tiny bit puffy – had she been crying? – until Nora pulled him to her, whispering in his ear what had happened, and the pair of them sprawled themselves over Jaune and Pyrrha, all of them giggling in a haphazard pile on their leader’s bed that was definitely too small.

They stayed like that for a while, until Pyrrha sat up and cleared her throat quietly, still fidgeting. “So I, uh, wanted to talk to you all,” she mumbled, her voice shaking. Jaune shifted her so she was sat on his lap, her back to his chest, with Ren resting a hand on her thigh as Nora moved into her side, hugging Pyrrha’s right arm.

“Take your time,” Nora whispered. “Deep breaths.”

Pyrrha nodded, a small smile on her face as she took a few deep breaths and tried to compose herself. “Well, um, first of all, I’m sorry,” she said quietly, not looking any of them in the eye. “For how I’ve been acting. It’s just that – I, um. A while now, I think, no, I know, I panicked, and it happened again and then I pushed you away and I-” Another deep breath; she focused on how all of them were holding her just a little bit tighter. “I was just _so tired_ of people thinking I was special all the time. That I’m just this perfect, flawless person who should be revered. But then I met you three, and you’d never even heard of me, you didn’t even know my name! And you treated me just like anyone else, and it was all I’d ever wanted.” She chuckled. “One of the very first things you did was ask about me; not about my status, or my championships, you asked about _me_. Nobody had ever done that before.”

“Then people are stupid,” Nora muttered, and Pyrrha giggled again.

“I guess … I guess it was just easy, in a way. It was easy getting to know you, living with you, hanging out together, lo-” Cutting herself off, Pyrrha shook her head. “But I’ve also … lied isn’t the right word. Hidden? From you, from everyone. And I think, because I’d done it for so long, it was so ingrained and I kept doing it.”

“Doing what?” Jaune asked gently. He squeezed her shoulder a bit, seeing she was starting to tremble again.

Pyrrha sighed, and lightly gripped her left wrist. “I started covering them up, back when I was still at Sanctum,” she said slowly, and Nora’s head snapped up. Was that plural? Did Pyrrha have more than one? “Everyone was already clambering to heap more praise on me, and … I suppose I was scared it would give them more to show I was ‘special’. But then … Jaune, Nora, Ren. Dust, it was _so easy_ to-” she gulped “-to fall in love with all of you.”

All of them flinched, blinking at Pyrrha in surprise, but she didn’t give them any time to say anything. She ran her fingertip over her wrist. “Kind. Funny. Caring. _Brave_. And I thought, maybe, _maybe_ , but … I had no proof. I wanted it to be true, I thought I could be selfish, just once. But nothing added up. And Jaune, your aura was _white_ when I unlocked it, and I’d never seen Nora or Ren’s-” Her breathing sped up, and Pyrrha squeezed her eyes shut. “And then last week, you said your aura was _yellow_ , and Ren’s was pink when it broke and I didn’t know what to think and I _love all of you_ and I panicked and ran off and I’m sorry-”

“Hey, hey, it’s okay, it’s alright,” Jaune said, tilting Pyrrha’s chin up and wiping away a stray tear. “Deep breaths, remember?”

“We’ve got you,” Nora whispered. She nuzzled her head against Pyrrha’s bicep, and threaded their fingers together.

“We always will,” and Ren looked her in the eyes when he said that, emerald meeting magenta, and he smiled warmly up at her.

A few deep, controlled breaths later, Pyrrha was calmer again, and no longer shaking. Looking at the faces of her teammates, she barely got out a sound before Jaune cut her off. “Before we go into … stuff, you have nothing to apologise for, okay?” he said, and looped an arm around her stomach. Nora and Ren nodded in agreement. “Just, if you ever feel like that again, if you’re overwhelmed or you just need to talk to someone, we’ll always be here to help and listen, alright?”

“Thank you,” Pyrrha murmured, voice watery as she settled back into him.

“And if we’re all being honest and pouring our hearts out here,” Jaune chuckled nervously, “I guess I should too. Because I, uh. I love you, too. All of you, I mean.” Pyrrha blinked up at him, wide-eyed, while Nora reached down to grip Ren’s free hand in her own.

Maybe they wouldn’t need to initiate the talk after all.

“I’ve felt it for a while too. I don’t know when I started, falling, I guess. You were the first people to ever believe in me, that I could actually _be_ somebody. And I remember the dance, spinning around and laughing and holding you all.” Jaune trailed off for a second, a warm smile crossing his face. “I think it was Vytal, when I properly realised it though. I just didn’t say anything because I was, I dunno, scared? That you wouldn’t feel the same way, and if I brought it up it would ruin our friendship and the team dynamic. I didn’t wanna hurt any of you, y’know? Besides, I thought it couldn’t be true anyway, that you’d feel the same way about me, since I’m, well, _me_ ,” they all frowned at him at that, “and I didn’t have any proof either. So I guess part of me just convinced myself it wasn’t meant to be.”

“Well you’re wrong,” Nora said, booping his nose as she and Ren smiled up at him. Jaune looked at both of them in surprise, sapphire eyes shining, and Pyrrha did the same, albeit with a small smile of her own as her free hand wove its way through blonde locks.

“It’s true,” Ren agreed. Sitting up properly, he held Jaune and Pyrrha’s gaze as long as he could without making them uncomfortable. “When we first came to Beacon, all Nora and I had were our weapons and each other. And for most of our lives it had just been us, relying on each other for company and to stay alive. But then we came here, and got put on a team with you, and you both accepted us, straight away. No questions, only kindness and support.”

Nora nodded. “It’s kinda funny, actually, because this is what we wanted to talk about too. We never had stability, or security, outside of each other for so long,” she said softly. “And you gave us all that and _more_. You gave us a _home_ , where we’re safe and we can relax and just be ourselves. You’ve always been there for us. And we settled and fit together so quickly as a team, even faster than RWBY did. We’re like family.” She tilted her head and beamed. “We may have already loved each other, but how could we not fall in love with you too?”

“You love us?” Pyrrha whispered. She sounded almost breathless, disbelief seeming to take her voice away. “Both of you? Both of _us_?”

“We do,” Ren reached up to cradle Pyrrha’s face with one hand, the other going to Jaune’s shoulder. “I think we always have.”

With a small sigh, Pyrrha leaned into Ren’s touch, feeling brave enough to sneak a kiss to his palm before he and Nora moved in closer, the three of them almost piling into Jaune. Wrapping his arms around them, Jaune buried his face in Pyrrha’s shoulder as he started chuckling. “So we were all in love with each other and didn’t realise,” he muttered, but was grinning.

“At least we know it now, silly,” Nora said as she pecked a kiss to his eyebrow. “I guess there’s only one thing left to solve, now.” Pyrrha’s hand automatically went around her left wrist, but seemed to relax as Nora nuzzled her shoulder.

Ren stroked his thumb across Pyrrha’s cheek. “When you said you were hiding them when talking about your soulmate marks, what exactly did you mean by that?” he asked softly. “Did you mean the soulmate specifically?”

“No, I meant the mark. Well, marks,” Pyrrha explained, words slow. “I … don’t have one soulmate mark. I have three.”

“Wait, three?” Jaune said. “I have three, too.”

Ren and Nora smiled at each other. _There it was_. “So do we,” they said in unison, Nora now lightly bouncing in excitement. Ren put a hand on her shoulder to calm her down a bit, and Pyrrha huffed a small laugh.

“So, what do we do now?” Jaune asked. “All reveal our soulmate marks together at the count of three or something?”

“You’re such a dork,” Nora teased, Pyrrha fully giggling this time as Jaune pouted. There was a pause as Ren hummed, and, as it turned out, that was exactly what they ended up doing. They all put their left wrists out together, facing down, Ren, Pyrrha and Jaune all having rolled up their sleeves.

One. Two. Three.

_Silence_.

A yellow shield. A pink lightning bolt. A red spear. A pink lotus.

None of them dared to even move. Only silence, save for their breathing, as they all stared down at their skin. It could have been seconds; it could have been an eternity.

With a small chuckle, Ren was the first to speak. “It would seem the world can be kind,” he said quietly, a soft smile pulling at the corners of his lips.

“Definitely,” Pyrrha whispered. She was trembling a little again, but smiling as she lightly traced the spear on his wrist, as if entranced. There was a mumble of protest at her touches, that they tickled; Ren didn’t notice the smirk shared on all of his partners’ – his _soulmates_ ’ – faces, and froze when they all turned to kiss him at the same time, the girls at each cheek and Jaune at his temple.

A blush immediately bloomed across his face, and Ren tried to hide behind his hair. “You’re adorable,” Jaune laughed, brushing Ren’s bangs out of his eyes.

“You’re _all_ adorable,” Nora declared. Promptly tackling the three of them back against the bed, the laughter that erupted quickly gave way to kisses exchanged between hushed and loving affirmations and gentle touches.

Classes could wait. This was far more important.

***

A couple of snowflakes had started to float down outside, Jaune smiling as he drew the curtains closed for the evening. Boxes were strewn across the floor, some open and in the process of being unpacked, most still sealed and taped, waiting to be dealt with in the following days.

Graduation felt like it had been months ago, when it hadn’t even been a week. After four years, they’d finally gotten their licenses – fully fledged Huntsmen and Huntresses. And now here they were, in their own house, _together_. It was fairly small, a single floor lodge just outside of the city; close enough to get to Vale in the event of a Grimm emergency, but far out enough that they still had privacy. Most of the furniture and housewares had been handed down from Jaune’s family or bought by Pyrrha’s (despite her insistence that they didn’t need to), with a couple of housewarming gifts from Yang, Weiss and Blake when they’d visited that morning. They’d already set up the king size bed in their room, only really unpacking their casual clothes, toiletries and cookware. And despite all the excitement of moving in together, that still wasn’t quite the highlight of the week. Close, but not quite.

A ping from his scroll startled him from his thoughts. Jaune took out the device from his pocket, seeing a message from Ruby. She’d flown up to Atlas the day before, to be there for Penny’s own graduation, just as Penny had come to Vale for hers.

**_Crater Face:_ ** _i hope ur move-in went well! sorry i couldn’t be there to help out today ;-;_

**_Vomit Boy:_ ** _it was wonderful!! and don’t worry about – how was Penny’s graduation?_

Jaune smiled as Ruby sent him a photo; her in a swishy black and red dress (with her signature cape, of course) with her arms around Penny, who looked all but swallowed in the ice blue of the Atlas Academy robe that was clearly too big. Not that she seemed to mind, smiling so wide her eyes squeezed shut as her head rested against Ruby’s; the little red scythe on Penny’s wrist just visible where she held Ruby round her shoulders. They exchanged a few more messages, including a ‘salutations!’ from Penny, before Nora got his attention by hugging him from behind.

“Ruby?” she asked, squeezing her arms a little around his stomach. Jaune smiled and nodded, showing Nora the photo and she squealed. “Awwww! They’re both so cute! I hope they come to visit us soon.”

“I’m sure they will,” Jaune said. He turned in her arms and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Though I hope the house will look more … lived in, when they do come.”

“Eh, I doubt they’ll mind. Are we gonna head to bed soon? Pyrrha and Ren look like they’re about to pass out any second.”

“Yeah, we could all probably do with an early night after today.” Jaune could feel the exhaustion starting to pull at him, and even through her grinning Nora looked as though she wasn’t far behind. Taking him by the hand, Nora led him out of the living room to their bedroom, where their partners were already waiting for them.

They were sat side by side on the bed against the headboard, Ren slumped against Pyrrha’s shoulder. Both of them had a book in one hand, their free hands twined together between them, though it looked as if any actual reading had been abandoned a while ago; Pyrrha’s eyes were starting to glaze over and Ren was likely only a few minutes away from falling asleep. Together, Jaune and Nora hopped on the bed, Ren only greeting them with a pleased hum as he snuggled further into Pyrrha’s shoulder. “Hello again,” Pyrrha mumbled, resting a hand on Nora’s cheek and pulling her in for a slow, sleepy kiss before doing the same with Jaune.

“We missed you,” Jaune said, smiling. Pyrrha gave him a light, playful shove but was betrayed by the deep pink spreading across her cheeks.

“I love you too, but can we go to sleep soon?” Ren grumbled, words muffled against Pyrrha’s skin.

Nora giggled. “Of course we can,” she whispered. She leaned over to run her fingers through his hair, giggling again as he smiled softly. “You really are just like a sloth sometimes. So cute.”

“Definitely cute,” Jaune agreed. Ren opened one eye and raised an eyebrow, a laugh rumbling in his chest as Jaune kissed his nose.

Exhaustion having fully seeped in, it had taken some effort to stay out of bed long enough to change into their pyjamas, not even bothering to be tidy and throwing their day clothes into a pile on the floor. Most of their outfits, anyway.

Despite the size of their new bed, they still huddled together in the middle, just as they always had done. Jaune had Ren cuddled against him, the smaller man’s back against his chest, with Pyrrha opposite and Nora squished in the middle, as she loved to do. “Do you think we’ll have enough time between unpacking to make a snowman in the yard tomorrow?” Nora asked, yawning halfway through.

Pyrrha chuckled. “We’ll see, dear,” she whispered. “Besides, the snow is forecast all week. We’ve got time.” There was a content hum as Nora smiled, snuggling herself more into the pile and nestling her head under the now fast asleep Ren.

“I’m sure we can. It sounds like it would be a fun break,” Jaune said. Another yawn from Nora, followed by Pyrrha, and it was definitely time to get some sleep. Their stuff wasn’t going to unpack itself. Jaune looped an arm over Ren, Pyrrha doing the same with Nora, all of their hands meeting between them; Jaune noting the cool of the silver bands on his soulmates’, his _lovers’_ , fingers and smiling. “Goodnight, guys,” he whispered, his fingers idly tracing the colours on their wrists, so ingrained between all of them they didn’t even need to see them anymore to map out their shapes. “I love you.”

“I love you, too,” Nora and Pyrrha said together. Even though he was asleep, Jaune felt Ren’s fingers twitch against his own, enough to know that he’d heard and was saying it back.

They had found each other, and were together. And they always would be.

**Author's Note:**

> I tried really, really hard on this fic and I hope you enjoyed it!
> 
> Any and all kudos and comments are very much loved and appreciated!! <3


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